A procedure for ultra centrifugation and lipid extraction has been developed. Fractionation of lipids was performed by sephadex and silicic acid chromatography. Analysis of the lipid composition of the subcellular extractions obtained from alcohol dependent rats and the control animals shows no difference in cerebrosides (measured as galactose), gangliosides (measured as N-acetylneuraminic acid), total protein, or total lipid weight in the myelin, synaptic membranes and synaptic vesicles. However, there appears to be some difference in the total phosphate in myelin, and cholesterol in both synaptic membranes and synaptic vesicles.